In sulfuric acid catalyzed olefin hydration, olefin is contacted in a mixed phase reactor with sulfuric acid to produce an extract containing alcohol strongly bound to the acid. In a second step, the extract is diluted with water, heated and stripped of the alcohol at low pressure. The acid is returned and recontacted with olefin. This scheme is used, for instance, in the manufacture of IPA from propylene and the manufacture of secondary butyl alcohol (SBA) from butene.
Typically, in the first step, sulfuric acid contacts gaseous propane in a bubble column-type device.
The present inventors have discovered that this type of reactor can suffer from dead zones, with gas preferentially held up behind baffle plates. This can upset the operation of the reactor. In certain cases, such as in the production of IPA, when the IPA rich stage reactor becomes a gas-liquid-liquid reactor, the second phase being isopropyl ether (IPE), the IPE can accumulate behind baffles, destabilizing the operation of the reactor. Accordingly, in an embodiment of the present invention, inverted conical baffles are used.
Conical baffles are per se known in gas-liquid mixing systems. See U.S. Pat. No. 5,451,349.
The present inventors have also found a system having internal configurations which increases the hydrodynamic stability of operation and the reliability of the operation of the IPA-rich stage reactor.